‘Send for Ada,’ she said. ‘Write to your mother tonight and the ravens will stay in their cages, I give you my word.’

It was a reckless bargain, she knew, but her desire to get Ada back trumped all else. She saw Eustace hesitate. He seemed to consider it for a moment before clenching his jaw and shaking his head.

‘You are trying to trick me,’ he said bitterly. ‘You think yourself so clever, Rosa, but I am no simpleton. Don’t you think I know that you will flee with Ada the moment she is returned? That her absence is the only thing keeping you at Raven Hall?’

Rosa opened her mouth to try to protest, but they both knew there was truth in his words. If it were not for the garden competition, Rosa would have left with Ada months ago.

‘Ada will stay with Mother until I have made you see sense,’ Eustace said.

‘Then the ravens are released tonight.’

Eustace scowled. ‘So be it.’

Rosa felt the chance to bring them back from the brink slipping through her fingers as Eustace turned away from her and stalked into the house. She drew her cloak hood up over her head to protect her ears from the cold as she walked around the grounds to the aviary.

Her ravens cawed at her the moment she stepped inside, flapping their metal wings and pecking at the bars of their cages. She sensed their desperation to be set free. Even a clockwork raven was not happy inside a cage.

‘I am sorry,’ she said softly. ‘I promise you’ll never be locked up again.’

She set them free one by one and they swept past her with joyful, raucous calls. She expected them to head for the garden, but they soared to the roof of Raven Hall and poured down the chimneys instead. Their purpose was to watch Eustace – and watch him they would. Rosa knew that he had blocked up the chimney in his own bedroom, but that didn’t prevent the birds pecking at his window or scratching at his door with their iron claws.

And if that meant he woke up screaming in the night once again, then he had only his own wickedness to blame.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Rosa did not see Eustace for two whole days after the incident at Beatrice’s garden. He did not emerge from his bedroom, and barely ate any of the food the servants left outside his locked door. Even his manservant was denied entry and came to Rosa to ask whether they should send for a doctor.

‘I do not think that is necessary, Harrow,’ she replied. ‘The duke received a shock at Lady Beatrice’s pleasure garden, that is all. I’m sure he will be himself again in another day or two.’